Tresco - a pricey slice of botanical paradise!

I spent two nights at Anchor in St Helen's Pool and on Wednesday afternoon, with the worst of the blow having peaked, I took the dingy over to Old Grimsby on Tresco.

(From "Isles of Scilly" by Graham Adam, published by Imray 2010)

Everything is certainly very neat and tidy - but for my taste, rather too neat and tidy. It's also very expensive. A loaf of bread, two pints of milk and two small chocolate bars cost me £7.50. I could not bring myself to buy anything else. 

However, there is no doubt that the reputation of the Abbey Gardens, first laid down by Augustus Smith 1834, is well deserved. My visit was a little late in the year to see the gardens at the very best but nevertheless they were quite beautiful.

The gardens include a museum of Ships' figureheads recovered from the numerous wrecks of sailing ships that have met their ends in the treacherous waters of Scilly over the years..

These days, electronic navigational aids mean that even those with only modest navigational capabilities like myself, can explore the archipelago in relative safety.

Mind you, the weather can still wreak havoc on those caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Last year Calico Jack (see previous post) was caught in a major storm. They put two anchors down in a well protected anchorage and held firm whilst chaos erupted around them and throughout the islands. 

A nearby yacht dragged its anchor and impaled itself on Calico's bowsprit. Then, whilst attempting to get clear it collided with Calico's stern and wrecked the self steering gear. In St Helen's Pool, numerous yachts dragged and were wrecked on rocks. The lifeboat could not get to them because the state of the tide meant that access from the south across the sandbanks was impossible and the northern channels were untenable even for the Lifeboat.

After my tour of the Abbey gardens I walked back to Old Grimsby via New Grimsby where I encountered the shop!

Back at Old Grimsby I still had time to kill waiting for the tide to float the dinghy..

and so visited the Church...

and the Old Block House

So ended my short spell on Tresco.

Back at the boat I prepared for departing Scilly the next day by getting the dinghy on deck and lashed down and by moving a few hundred metres down the pool away from the nearby rocks, which come the morning, with a change in wind direction forecast, would become an uncomfortably close lee shore.